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PLoS Computational Biology Issue Image | Vol. 5(2) February 2009
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Zooming in on the voltage sensor. Top
The stability and gating motion of the voltage sensor domain (white) of the Kv1.2 ion channel in its natural environment within bilayers (orange) is a hot current research topic. Using extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, a new study by Bjelkmar et al. sheds new light on these phenomena. Upon application of an electrical field, the voltage sensor S4 helix undergoes a secondary structure transition, orienting the positively charged arginine residues (yellow) in a way that seems to "prepare" them for the gating motion (see Bjelkmar et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000289).
Image Credit: Jyrki Hokkanen (The Finnish IT Center for Scientific Computing (CSC)).
Citation: (2009) PLoS Computational Biology Issue Image | Vol. 5(2) February 2009. PLoS Comput Biol 5(2): ev05.i02. doi:10.1371/image.pcbi.v05.i02
Published: February 27, 2009
Copyright: © 2009 Jyrki Hokkanen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Zooming in on the voltage sensor.
The stability and gating motion of the voltage sensor domain (white) of the Kv1.2 ion channel in its natural environment within bilayers (orange) is a hot current research topic. Using extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, a new study by Bjelkmar et al. sheds new light on these phenomena. Upon application of an electrical field, the voltage sensor S4 helix undergoes a secondary structure transition, orienting the positively charged arginine residues (yellow) in a way that seems to "prepare" them for the gating motion (see Bjelkmar et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000289).
Image Credit: Jyrki Hokkanen (The Finnish IT Center for Scientific Computing (CSC)).
doi:10.1371/image.pcbi.v05.i02.g001
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